VIVA LA VINYL
A couple of years ago, I remember thinking about how obsolete cd's have become. I mean, if you want quality, you buy vinyl. And if you want portability, you buy/download MP3's. Plus if you're really into album artwork and packaging, it's pretty hard to beat vinyl, which frequently comes in limited editions and handmade sleeves. Also another great plus, vinyl tends to be a bit more affordable. CD's usually range from $12-18, while the vinyl versions are usually about $2 bucks cheaper. So the only problem with vinyl that I could come up with, the only way it doesn't beat cd's, is that it's impossible to rip to your MP3 player, unless you have the right (read: expensive) equipment and some spare (read: unemployed) time. So batting all this around my head one day, I thought wouldn't it be wonderful, if all the records you bought, came with a free download of the album in MP3 form. But considering all the hoopla around the "evil" "file-sharing" "bootlegging" MP3, I figured it would never happen...

But lo and behold, sometimes dreams come true!

Matador has started doing it! And apparently it's in response to Merge Records doing it! That's two pretty big indie labels, and hopefully they'll be more jumping on this bandwagon! WOO HOO! Long Live Vinyl!